Portrait of the Artist as a Young Woman
August 31, 2010 8:19 AM Subscribe
Parents kept my high school art. I'm 34 and they've now given it back to me. What the hell do I do with it?
It's mostly sketches, some photographs, and notebooks. High school was an embarrassingly painful time for me (nothing serious, just the usual stuff) and I'd really love to just chuck all of this stuff and the memories that go with it. But, should I keep some of it for sentimental sake?
It's mostly sketches, some photographs, and notebooks. High school was an embarrassingly painful time for me (nothing serious, just the usual stuff) and I'd really love to just chuck all of this stuff and the memories that go with it. But, should I keep some of it for sentimental sake?
If you're planning to/considering having kids, just keep it around in case they want to be artists. You can show them how you were doing at their age. Keep all the flat stuff under a mattress; won't take up any space and it'll be safely stored.
posted by griphus at 8:22 AM on August 31, 2010
posted by griphus at 8:22 AM on August 31, 2010
Response by poster: Hmmm. I think it's all pretty mediocre myself. The good stuff has already been framed and is in the parent's house (their choice). Perhaps I should just hold on to that stuff?
posted by Leezie at 8:22 AM on August 31, 2010
posted by Leezie at 8:22 AM on August 31, 2010
Best answer: You file it away out of sight until you feel you want to look at it. You may not always feel the way you do about it now; at some point in the distant future you may decide it's the right time to reacquaint yourself with a younger you.
If there's no space for it, take some photos and keep them instead.
posted by le morte de bea arthur at 8:24 AM on August 31, 2010 [3 favorites]
If there's no space for it, take some photos and keep them instead.
posted by le morte de bea arthur at 8:24 AM on August 31, 2010 [3 favorites]
Best answer: Scan it, keep it on disk, leave it to your kids that way if you want. Maybe they'll find it interesting to keep, or their kids will.
think of it this way; if you had sketches, however amateurish, by an ancestor from 100 years ago, would you consider them interesting?
posted by emjaybee at 8:26 AM on August 31, 2010 [10 favorites]
think of it this way; if you had sketches, however amateurish, by an ancestor from 100 years ago, would you consider them interesting?
posted by emjaybee at 8:26 AM on August 31, 2010 [10 favorites]
Yeah, I wish I has just put in it a portfolio and put it aside somewhere. Definitely keep it around.
posted by two lights above the sea at 8:27 AM on August 31, 2010
posted by two lights above the sea at 8:27 AM on August 31, 2010
Put it away somewhere for a year, and if after that year you haven't really thought about it, missed it, or wanted to pull it out and look at it, then you can chuck it.
posted by Slinga at 8:39 AM on August 31, 2010
posted by Slinga at 8:39 AM on August 31, 2010
Do you remember being yourself in high school? Does she believe that far far in the future, in 2010, she'll be 34? Does past-you have the slightest idea how far in the past she's living?
I figure future-me will feel the same way about current-me. To future-me, I'm living decades in the past! If only I would have known now what I know then!
So I agree with most: heck just let future-you decide what to do with it. It's hard to say what she'll want.
what
posted by fritley at 9:25 AM on August 31, 2010 [2 favorites]
I figure future-me will feel the same way about current-me. To future-me, I'm living decades in the past! If only I would have known now what I know then!
So I agree with most: heck just let future-you decide what to do with it. It's hard to say what she'll want.
what
posted by fritley at 9:25 AM on August 31, 2010 [2 favorites]
This stuff takes up a lot of space, and moving it around as you go through life will be annoying. Scan it, make backups, and forget it.
posted by grouse at 9:58 AM on August 31, 2010
posted by grouse at 9:58 AM on August 31, 2010
Best answer: I'm with grouse. I've been keeping and schlepping boxes of supposedly sentimental stuff like this for decades, figuring "well, I might want this when I'm 30, no, maybe when I'm 40, damn, I still have this stuff, when I'm 50, oh for the love of god." I'm now holding out for some level of caring at 60. The few times I have looked at it, the best of it is amusing for about three minutes. I am significantly less sentimental than most (and maybe less talented), so take that into consideration, but my advice to my younger self -- had the technology been available -- would be to digitize what you can and keep only the best of the rest.
posted by sageleaf at 10:27 AM on August 31, 2010 [2 favorites]
posted by sageleaf at 10:27 AM on August 31, 2010 [2 favorites]
Throw it the hell out. You'll never look at it again.
There ought to be a limit on "sentimentality." You don't want to end up like the folks on the hoarding shows.
posted by BostonTerrier at 11:13 AM on August 31, 2010
There ought to be a limit on "sentimentality." You don't want to end up like the folks on the hoarding shows.
posted by BostonTerrier at 11:13 AM on August 31, 2010
As the artistic child of artists:
If you have room for the stuff, and have or ever plan on having children, keep it. My dad died when I was 8, and the art that's trickled down to me through family and friends has been incredibly meaningful--the only way I've gotten to know him as a person at all. Likewise, the art that I've seen from my mother's teens/childhood has given me a much deeper of understanding of her as a person.
posted by PhoBWanKenobi at 11:25 AM on August 31, 2010 [1 favorite]
If you have room for the stuff, and have or ever plan on having children, keep it. My dad died when I was 8, and the art that's trickled down to me through family and friends has been incredibly meaningful--the only way I've gotten to know him as a person at all. Likewise, the art that I've seen from my mother's teens/childhood has given me a much deeper of understanding of her as a person.
posted by PhoBWanKenobi at 11:25 AM on August 31, 2010 [1 favorite]
Get some milk crates and limit yourself to what can be stored in them. I think it's ok to chickl some of it, but I would rather edit down the collection to snippets that really reminded me of myself at that time. It's actually comedy gold now.
posted by WeekendJen at 1:10 PM on August 31, 2010
posted by WeekendJen at 1:10 PM on August 31, 2010
*ok to chuck some of it
posted by WeekendJen at 1:11 PM on August 31, 2010
posted by WeekendJen at 1:11 PM on August 31, 2010
Best answer: As emjaybee and WeekendJen suggest, scan them (or take digital photos of the bigger stuff), put them on a couple of disks, then chuck it.
I went through the agony of deciding what to do with removalists boxes full of preschoolers artwork. I couldn't bear to part with one single thing but I was sick of lugging huge boxes full of paper and paddlepop sticks every time we moved house.
Then I read the above hint somewhere online, I braced myself, scanned and photographed, chucked the originals... and I don't regret it one bit.
posted by malibustacey9999 at 3:41 PM on August 31, 2010
I went through the agony of deciding what to do with removalists boxes full of preschoolers artwork. I couldn't bear to part with one single thing but I was sick of lugging huge boxes full of paper and paddlepop sticks every time we moved house.
Then I read the above hint somewhere online, I braced myself, scanned and photographed, chucked the originals... and I don't regret it one bit.
posted by malibustacey9999 at 3:41 PM on August 31, 2010
My parents both attest that my grandfather's art is one of the first things they'd save if the house were on fire and they had to get out. Pretty much Grandpa's sculpture and our family photo albums comprise the entire list.
Grandpa wasn't a professional artist by any means, but he had a really unique, individual style that spoke volumes about who he was and what he valued. Is your art like that? Can you see your kids cherishing it because it's uniquely you? If so, keep it around.
posted by little light-giver at 7:41 PM on August 31, 2010
Grandpa wasn't a professional artist by any means, but he had a really unique, individual style that spoke volumes about who he was and what he valued. Is your art like that? Can you see your kids cherishing it because it's uniquely you? If so, keep it around.
posted by little light-giver at 7:41 PM on August 31, 2010
High school was hellish for me as well.
About seven years ago, I happened upon a stash of high-school-era stuff in my parents' attic. I flipped through some of it and wasn't too impressed, and felt like even just holding onto it was sort of stressful. So I said screw it. I went outside and tossed it all in our firepit. While it burned, I toasted a couple of marshmallows and, I believe, had some Kahlua.
I can't tell you how much better not having that stuff made me feel. Maybe at some point it would have become interesting to me, or to my daughter, but the enormous freedom I felt at not having to deal with it was a more than fair trade, in my opinion.
posted by MeghanC at 8:31 PM on August 31, 2010 [1 favorite]
About seven years ago, I happened upon a stash of high-school-era stuff in my parents' attic. I flipped through some of it and wasn't too impressed, and felt like even just holding onto it was sort of stressful. So I said screw it. I went outside and tossed it all in our firepit. While it burned, I toasted a couple of marshmallows and, I believe, had some Kahlua.
I can't tell you how much better not having that stuff made me feel. Maybe at some point it would have become interesting to me, or to my daughter, but the enormous freedom I felt at not having to deal with it was a more than fair trade, in my opinion.
posted by MeghanC at 8:31 PM on August 31, 2010 [1 favorite]
This thread is closed to new comments.
posted by two lights above the sea at 8:21 AM on August 31, 2010